Wardchat

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) is still ongoing as the petitioners are expected to close their cases on today, after which the respondents will open their defence.

It's been three long weeks of presentation of evidences ranging from documents, to video clips and voters' cards. As well as the calling forth of witnesses for their testimonies and cross examinations.

In accordance to the timeline of event set by the court, the respondents will now be expected to defend themselves over a five-day period.

The citizens of Sierra Leone will be taking to the polls on the 24th of June to elect a new president and members of the parliament.

With 3.4 million registered voters of 8.4 million people, the West African country is about stepping into her fifth election cycle since the end of the 10-year civil war.

The foremost contenders for the country's leadership are; President Julius Maada Bio, the incumbent, and Samura Kamara, the runner-up in the previous election.

There is definitely an increased interest of both citizens and the international community in the coming election. The nation's voters register increased by 195,595 from 2018 according to the report made available by Al Jazeera; and Nigeria's former Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, is set to lead the Commonwealth election observers group for the elections.

The voting is expected to be done manually by the secret ballot method, while the ballot cast will be physically counted at polling stations and electronically tallied at the district and regional tallying centres led by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL), the nation's electoral umpire.

To be declared winner, a presidential candidate must secure at least, 55% of the total votes. If this requirement is not met, a run-off election will be held between the two candidates with the highest votes.

Good luck Sierra Leone, Africa is rooting for you!

The Presidential election tribunal is ongoing as the petitioners have been presenting evidences and calling forth witnesses.

A major constitution of these evidences are the INEC EC8 forms. What exactly are they?

The EC8 forms are in series from EC8A to EC8E. The primary function of these forms is collation of results, right from the Polling Units to the National level. Below are the EC8 form types and their uses;
• EC8A: This is used for Polling Unit result documentation. It holds utmost significance as it is the primary result sheet.
• EC8B: This form serves the purpose of recording and collation of election results at the ward level. The results from EC8A are entered into this form.
• EC8C: This is used for result collation at the Local Government level. It incorporates the results recorded at the ward level.
• EC8D Form: This is used in the compilation of election results at the state level. It encompasses the results of constituency and senatorial district elections.
• EC8E Form: This is the final collation of election results. It is used to officially declare the winner of an election. As in the case of a presidential election, the EC8E form incorporates results from the state level.

In line with the Section 32(1) of the 2022 Electoral Act, the final list of the three off-cycle governorship elections scheduled to be conducted on November 11th has been published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Digital copies of these lists are available on the Commission's official website and social media pages, while the hardcopies will be published at INEC's State and Local Government offices in the affected states on the 8th of June.

The list shows 18 aspirants for Kogi, 17 for Imo and 16 for Bayelsa's gubernatorial elections.

The long awaited 29th of May is finally here. On this day, the Muhammadu Buhari administration will hand over power, and the reign Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will begin.

A lot has happened to get us where we are as a nation. Our democracy, though not perfect, has survived the most challenging times because of our resilience as a people. Fellow Nigerians, it could have been worse.

Of course, there're agitations from some quarters challenging the legitimacy of our soon-to-be President, but the fact that, these agitations have not morphed into violence, chaos and anarchy speaks volume of our democratic maturity.

So on this day we celebrate the resilience of our democracy. Congratulations and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!